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If Poland won’t change position on the demolition of Soviet monuments, Russia may abandon its responsibilities to preserve the existing Polish memorials and create new ones. This opinion was expressed today at a press conference the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on international Affairs Konstantin Kosachev.
He recalled that between Moscow and Warsaw in 1994, was signed the intergovernmental agreement on burial sites and places of memory of war and repression. Signed by President Andrzej Duda, the law involving the demolition of about 230 Soviet monuments, is in conflict with the provisions of this agreement.
If Poland does not change its position and will not return to the observance of a bilateral Treaty, Russia may cease to fulfil its responsibilities “to care for those memorial places of memory that are on the territory of the Russian Federation”, said Kosachev. And it may affect not only the memorials of the last century. “One such memorial is a place of crash of an airliner with the Polish President,” he recalled. “Now, the Polish side has plans for the construction of an appropriate memorial, it has its own parameters, dimensions and everything else. The question is also not a foregone conclusion”, – said Kosachev.
If it “will not result in a sense of” Polish politicians that Russia may take restrictive measures against members of the Sejm and Senate, bilateral and regional cooperation. “We are categorically opposed to sanctions against paliamentarian, as well as any other sanctions, but sometimes there’s no space” – said the head of the international Committee of the Federation Council.
We will remind, the plane with the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski on Board, EN route at the head of a large delegation in the Smolensk region to participate in commemorative events at the place of execution of Polish officers in Katyn, April 10, 2010, crashed during landing near the military airport in heavy fog. All aboard – 89 passengers and seven crew members were killed.